


Like rocks thrown into a lake

by SpicySnowflake



Series: Spicy's Whumptober 2020 [19]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: M/M, Whump, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020, mourning a loved one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:08:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27100981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpicySnowflake/pseuds/SpicySnowflake
Summary: Dib told Zim that humans were meant to live short lives, that an existence of a million years would be no life at all for a human.Zim couldn't understand it. But he was learning to live with it.
Relationships: Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Series: Spicy's Whumptober 2020 [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948723
Comments: 4
Kudos: 40





	Like rocks thrown into a lake

**Author's Note:**

> This is my fic for Day 19! I hope you like it ^^  
> Its connected to another fic I made earlier this month called "Kidnapped".

Humans live such short lives. Zim knew that. Back when he was a much different man, he had found that fact amusing. Then before he knew it, he fell in love with the one he used to call his nemesis. Suddenly, he began to dread it. 

Now he had to learn to live with it. 

It was both worse and better than he thought it would be. Their children made it easier sometimes. Then Ruby would talk about ninja cat ghosts and Ruben would appear with his trench coat and they would both talk about their love for Earth, and they would remind him of Dib so much that he could barely take it. He missed Dib. He missed him more than he’s ever missed anything in his life; but slowly, he was learning to live without him. Just like he promised. 

Dib told him that humans were meant to live short lives. Zim never truly understood his mentality. He could never understand why Dib and so many other humans would choose to reject the option to live longer. 

Dib had once told him that an existence of a million years would be no life at all for a human. Zim couldn’t understand what he meant. But even among the humans who had initially chosen to accept the offer, so many had eventually chosen to withdraw from the treatment altogether. Almost like something within them couldn’t bear to live much longer. 

He looked at Gaz, who was quietly looking over Violet as she interacted with her cousins. She was one of the very few humans who was still taking the treatment. She had claimed to have started it for her daughter’s sake, and would only continue for as long as her daughter needed her; until Violet reached adulthood. 

It wouldn’t be long until all the Membrane children would become adults. They grew both physically and mentally at a faster rate than irkens did. But they still aged much slower than humans, and for that Zim was thankful and relieved. He didn’t know what he would do if he had to watch his children and niece’s lives quickly go by in front of his eyes. Like he had with Dib’s.

Zim watched them as they threw rocks into the lake with a fond smile on his face. His past self would have scoffed at this, would not have understood the contentment he felt. He was glad, though, that he had changed. He never would have had any of them otherwise. So many things had changed in such a short amount of time that all the other beings in the universe were left reeling. And it was all thanks to Dib and the other humans. 

That was another thing about the humans that he couldn’t really understand. Their propensity to change. Humans constantly changed. All their lives. And it was normal to them, encouraged even. Nothing in their lives was ever static. They change, and the world changes with them. 

Zim could barely fathom it, but somehow, humans have this strange power to change their world with just as much tenacity as they themselves do. 

And Dib decided that his world was the whole entire universe. 

Zim supposed, in the end, it was all for the best that his human was so crazy and ambitious, because he left a whole universe moved by his influence. Everywhere he looked and anywhere he went, Zim would see what Dib had accomplished in his short, but fulfilling life. Zim still missed Dib, and didn’t think he would ever stop missing him. That was alright, because Dib left a whole universe for him. Zim would cherish it for the rest of his still-long life.

Zim still couldn’t understand why humans chose to let their lives remain short, but he was beginning to see the reason why the universe had given them such short lifespans in the first place. Humans come into the world and leave just as quickly, but they leave an impression on the world that lasts so much longer than them. If their world was a lake, then they were the rock. When they land, it’s explosive but short, yet the ripples they leave behind stretch farther than they could ever realize, and the lake is left just a little bit fuller.

**Author's Note:**

> The ending with the lake and the rock metaphor was actually inspired by @Marijke_Rose ^-^  
> Thanks so much for giving me this idea!


End file.
